A day of friendship…

I spent a wonderful day with the students from the Hanoi International School (HIS) and Bac Phu Secondary School.

Through the Sister School Program with HSCV, the students from these two schools were able to meet, communicate and play games together. Most importantly, from strangers, they became acquaintances, and fast friends in a short span of time.
The day started at 8.30am. Together with Mr. Chuck, the President of HSCV, two staff, three teachers of HIS and 15 students from Grade 6, we, made our way to the school. By 9.30am, we were gathered at Bac Phu School, eager to meet their soon-to-be new friends.

Their first meeting was held in the meeting room of the school. At first, the students were a little reserved and barely talked. A while later, they were divided into groups of four and that broke the ice a little and conversations became more lively. During the group chat, there was an HIS student in each group who was effectively bilingual in Vietnamese and English. The student played translator for the other students to facilitate the conversations. Some of the students from Bac Phu could converse in English fluently. The students from HIS also brought with them some books and they related the stories from their books to the Vietnamese students of Bac Phu School. All the students enjoyed the sharing session immensely.

After the session in the meeting room, all of the students were brought to the schoolyard for some outdoor games. The HIS students had made special preparations for the games and took extra effort to explain the games to the students of Bac Phu. It did not take the Bac Phu students long while grasp the rules of the game and hit the ground with the rest of the students. At the schoolyard, the smiles on their faces were as bright as the afternoon sun, and their happiness was obvious.

During the return journey back to Hanoi, we discussed the possibility of organising a fund-raising project for the students of HIS to help their new friends of Bac Phu School and to visit their new friends in the near future.

An afternoon meeting may be brief, but the friendship between the students of these two schools will certainly extend beyond this and translate to better initiatives and new friendships to last a lifetime.

Blogged by Do Thi Thuy Hong